A good buddy of mine runs a very successful phone repair business in Queensland, Australia. A few days ago, a customer came in with a broken iPhone, and as he took it out of his pocket it exploded in his hands.

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BOOM!

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Luckilly, this doesn't happen often with iPhones (maybe Samsung a little more) but needless to say, all were left wondering what would have happened if it had exploded a few moments earlier while still in his pocket. Watch the video here..

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iPhone Explodes

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My friend captured the entire incident on his CCTV from the shop, and it has received coverage on most major news outlets in Australia over the past week. I thought I would take the opportunity to ask him a few questions about phones in general and why this happened....

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INTERVIEW WITH A PHONE TECH

Bkkshadow:

Simon, do you know anything about batteries?

Simon:

Yes, I know a fair bit about batteries.

Bkkshadow:

Why do they explode?

Simon:

Here's a very basic rundown.

Overall, it is to be remembered that explosive battery failure is extremely rare. With the sheer volume of iPhones out there to only have a few recorded events of catastrophic failure is a testament to Apple's design, testing and manufacture process. Even design failures like the Samsung Note 7 only equate to a very low percentage of explosions, we’re talking sub 0.01% here.

Batteries in phones are like batteries in cars, they are a consumable item. After around 300 charge cycles they start to degrade quite quickly. All iPhone batteries have a chip in them that monitor all this, much like all cars have an odometer that displays how many kilometres they have done, and computers that record how the car has been driven. The chip in the iPhone battery records the amount of usage, how many charge cycles, how many MhA the battery has by design, how many MhA the battery can actually hold right now, the temperature of the battery and a few other things such as which 3rd party company built the battery for apple. Any repair shop worth its salt can test and get this info for customers, and it's usually something they will do for free. If the shop you are going to doesn't know how to do this, or wants to charge you more than $5-10 to do it, then you are in the wrong shop.

Bkksahdow:

What could indicate battery failure is imminent?

Simon:

After 300 charge cycles, or earlier if the device has been abused the battery will start to fail. There is no hard and fast rule for battery failure but a few things can happen.

1. Loss of life. Your battery used to last all day and all night, now it seems to conk out about 8pm, then 7pm, then 6... and so on.

2. Percentage Jump. Your battery has for example 60%, then you plug it into the charger and it suddenly reads 35%, so you turn it off and on and when it comes back its at 70%. In reality, the battery is malfunctioning, has lost a lot of life and the battery control chip can no longer read it.

3. Bloating. This is the worst possible situation. The battery will expand inside the phone, at first you'll see inconsistent battery performance. Then after a while the screen will not sit right, it will look like its lifting up slightly. If left, the screen will lift more and separate from the device until the LCD cracks. In most situations this leads to a very confused consumer who is scratching their head wondering how they broke their phone screen when they never dropped it. This is also when the battery in the device is at the highest risk of exploding, because if it expands and punctures on another component inside the phone then the battery can self-detonate. This may not only happen in an abuse event like dropping the phone, but also when you least expect it like when you’re jamming power into a damaged battery overnight while it is on charge and you are sleeping.

Bkkshadow:

What causes battery failure?

Simon:

1. Extended use. Just like running up KM's on a car, the more you use your device, the more you need to either upgrade your device to a newer model, or maintain your existing model. Whereas a battery might last 5 years for a guy who uses it for a few phone calls and text messages a day, a device that belongs to someone who spends all day sending and receiving Snapchat and Facebook messages, while live streaming on Twich probably is only going to get a year or thereabouts out of a battery.

2. Moisture/Heat. Leaving your phone on the dash of a hot car all day is going to slowly cook the chemicals in the battery. And moisture is the enemy of all electronics. Moisture doesn't necessarily mean you dropped your phone in the bath tub dried it out and it still works. Moisture means sweat in your pocket or exposure to humid environments, put a phone in a tradesman's jeans pocket on a 35 degree day while he’s installing an air-conditioner on a roof or a lady who wants to keep it in her pocket while doing a hardcore gym session and it is going to do damage, and it’s a cumulative effect of all this damage over time that causes things to go boom.

3. Bad power. Garbage in, garbage out. Non genuine wall chargers and cables do you no favors and are probably the single biggest cause of battery problems. Ever wondered why end of the lightning cable you plug into your phone is longer than it really needs to be? There is a voltage regulator in there that cleans up the power going into the phone. When you buy a knock off cable from the petrol station, ebay, or some guy in the middle of a shopping center they won’t have that regulator in there, the cable will look the same but in reality it is far inferior to a genuine product. That's why they cost $1 and a genuine apple cable costs $30. There is nothing wrong with a third party making a cable, or powerblock and there are plenty who make good quality stuff. But as an average consumer it’s almost impossible to tell what is genuine and what is counterfeit, so the best advice is just to stick to the genuine apple cables.

Bkkshadow:

Anything else you would like to tell us?

Simon:

You spent $1200 on a phone, you can afford a $26 cable. (there is a lot more to this including the dramas with car chargers, if you are interested in that then ask).

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To Be Continued....

I'll be following up this story with another piece about the evils of car-chargers. Until then, charge safely people and keep an eye on your batteries.

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